1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method, and a recording medium storing a program for implementing the method. More particularly, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a recording medium storing a program for implementing the method, by which a plurality of images are archived as a single file.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to view images captured by a photographing apparatus, such as a digital camera or a digital single-lens reflex camera, in an information processing apparatus, such as a personal computer (PC) or a television capable of displaying the captured images, the captured images are displayed one by one or as thumbnail images. An archive or a file format that stores a plurality of images as a single file is expected to be introduced as a new method of viewing images.
Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 2007-194948 discloses technology for extracting an image satisfying a predetermined requirement from a plurality of images recorded in a recording device, such as a hard disk. The patent also discloses technology for obtaining location information of a plurality of images by using a global positioning system (GPS) when the images are captured, storing the captured images and the location information, and extracting some images from among the stored images by using the location information, so that an image captured in a nearby range can be obtained.
However, the technology disclosed in the above patent necessarily requires GPS in order to obtain the location information of the images when the images are captured, and to obtain the image captured in the nearby range.